Trento, Italy, February 12, 2014. This coming Thursday injury-plagued Diatec TRENTINO and Russian giant Belogorie BELGOROD will cross their ways for a ticket to the Final Four of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men after a straight-set win for Belogorie in the first leg of the duel last week.
To claim its fifth qualification to the Final Four in six participations in the competition, the team of head coach Roberto Serniotti will first have to win the Playoff 6 return game by 3:0 or 3:1 and then also the Golden Set, dreaming of stretching their already legendary winning record. Some 3,000 fans are expected to show up for the match. This time it will be much harder than usual, because TRENTINO has to deal with several injuries. The Bulgarian opposite Tsvetan Sokolov will be missing and the other opposite, the Hungarian David Szabo also got seriously injured during the match against Bre Banca Lannutti CUNEO of the Italian domestic league, which TRENTINO lost by 1:3 this past Sunday. The availability of the middle blocker Emanuele Birarelli is also questionable. So the starting line-up of the home team on Thursday will be quite unpredictable.
“The first match played in Belgorod showed how strong our opponents are. They are a team of the highest level, but still not unbeatable,” says the coach of the TRENTINO Roberto Serniotti. “We still have the chance to claim the qualification, as long as we play a different game. We will need more efficiency, especially from the serving area and in the break point phase. In Russia we did not take advantage of some important opportunities we had. I hope that playing at home will make the difference and we evidently need the support of all our fans. It will be really hard but we have to try and do that with a positive attitude. The history of this competition is full of ventures like the one we want to accomplish. Let's dare and give our best."
The match on Thursday starts at 20:30 local time at the Palatrento competition hall in Trento.
Click here for schedule of the game’s TV coverage. It will also be broadcast live by local Radio Radio Dolomiti.